UC Davis

This ethnographic study examines the lives, perspectives, and experiences of members of a self-described progressive, evangelical church community in Denver, CO. The research was based around one important and previously unanswered question: how is it that a mostly-white church, whose public communication often consists of progressive theological and anti-racist political and social messaging, maintain a congregation of mostly white attendants? This research demonstrates that, while this Christian community has changed its attitudes and evolved its church practices away from traditional views of sexuality and gender roles, this same church culture is still strongly constructed within proximity to whiteness and white Christian culture. Through interviews, observations, and historical analysis, this research finds that this church community is at a theological, political, and social impasse, trapped between it’s desires for racial inclusion and its historical constructions of traditionally white, American evangelicalism.